Best hockey game of the year

It was a tough drive down to the Joe (Joe Louis Arena) last night for the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks hockey game, but boy, was it worth it.

My friend Greg and I purchased a series of nine tickets (Gordie Howe series - jersey number 9, get it?), and this was one of the games on our series.

It took about 20 minutes longer than usual to get there from home, but still arrived with a half hour to game time.

Detroit started out quickly scoring two quick goals within the first few minutes and it looked like it was going to be a rout.

But then Chicago caught fire and in one of the best defensive performances this year against the Wings eventually made the score 4-2. Greg and I had seen 3 straight wins, but this looked to be a loss until the Wings found the mark with two goals to tie it with ten minutes to go.

Then there was a five-minute overtime that resulted in no goals and then a shoot-out.

Pavel Datsyuk (see photo above) put in the first shoot-out goal and that was all that was needed to win. Ty Conklin looked shaky in the first two periods, but then looked really sharp the rest of the way, including stopping three shoot-out shots.

Our section (218) was rowdy and included a number of Chicago Blackhawk fans and a bus load of Canadian junior hockey players who were more interested in drinking beer and yelling at passing women than rooting for either team on the ice.

Eventually they drew enough attention that security arrived and discovered they were drinking underage and that slowed things for the rest of the evening.

While we were in the arena, the snow stopped and the drive home was a little slower due to icy roads, but nonetheless wonderful considering the great game we just saw. When the radio announcer on the post-game show called it the "best game of the year," we had to agree.

Go Wings!